Shipping Charges for Selling Your Photos

[tmalone893]

I just recently set up my Zenfolio website to sell the pictures that I take at my kids sporting events. (Parents are always asking if they can buy the prints.....etc....) So that is where the website ideal came from. After setting up the account, I decided to orders a couple of 5x7 for myself to see the image quality and the packaging that it is delivered in. I was a little shocked at the shipping cost.

I know they have to cover packing material and all but does this discourage any of your customers that you know of.:confused:

My shipping cost for the two 5x7s was $6.45 ( The pictures are $.98 each)

[Patrick]

They will either be discouraged from buying at all or will be encouraged to buy larger orders. I suspect four times as many pictures wouldn't be four times the shipping.

While it seems high, it's not really too bad when you consider the packaging (if their packed safely) and the actual shipping costs.

Part of that price is paying a salary for someone to pack that order too.

edit: $.98 seems quite a bit low for the price of your prints.

[tmalone893]

$.98 seems quite a bit low for the price of your prints.

Thanks for the response.

$.98 is the base cost of the 5x7, the cost of the pictures for the customers is higher.

[Mike R]

I use Exposure Manager and if i recall right, their minimum shipping fee is less. My cost for 5x7 is only $.75

[tim]

$6.45 is cheap shipping. Think of the time it takes to package images well, the materials used, and the cost of shipping, they're probably only just covering costs, if that. I used to charge $15, i've dropped it to $10 recently, but I have a minimum order of $50. I do fulfillment myself, any less than that and it's not worth my time, by the time I order prints, have them sent from the lab, inspect, reprint if necessary, repackage, and send out. At $10 I make a loss on shipping, hence the minimum order.

[amfoto1]

Shipping & handling with my Printroom.com account costs 4.95 for a couple prints that size.

[tmalone893]

I received the pictures today and I must say that I'm impressed with the prints from Mpix. After I saw the pictures I forgot about the shipping cost. All of a sudden it wasn't as important.

[EnronRocks]

They ship in boxes and are very good at packing. I don't really know about MPix, but I use Millers. They sent them in a heavy box with bubble wrap. I was recommended to Millers lab by Zenfolio and will never leave.

[Saxi]

I just checked out their site, $.99 for 5"x7" seems pretty high, why are they so much higher than other companies for standard photo sizes like this?

[Paul J McCain]

$6.45 seems pretty normal unless it's USPS 1st Class. FedEx/USPS Priority/UPS/DHL and $6.45 is completely understandable.

(coming from someone who has an online auto parts business and ships 10 packages a day of various sizes)